BlogHer ’08: Part 2: I went to BlogHer and all I got was treated like a rock star…and a t-shirt.

My last post notwithstanding I had a truly magnificent time at BlogHer ’08. I expected to meet a lot of people, which I did. I expected to make a fool out of myself, which I did. But here are some things that I didn’t expect (along with all of the shameless name-dropping that I totally feel entitled to do now):

1. To have Loralee actually squeal when she saw me at the Newbie Mixer on Thursday night.

2. To be standing in a triangle with Graham and Mike at the People’s Party, getting our Bay Area Dad Bloggerness on in the middle of a sea of women.

3. To have my bullshit seen through by Oh the Joys and then to get teased by her all weekend about it.

4. To be given one of Carmen’s "four mile hike" muffins.

5. To be recognized by Lisa Stone and thanked for participating on the BlogHer website, with references to actual participations!

6. To see, on the great big screens at the front of the ballroom during the opening breakfast, a screenshot of my blog and some lame quote. Several times. Thanks "Blogher-big-screen-slideshow" Committee. You both mortified me and made me feel awesomely welcome and involved.

7. To be practically adopted by Tanis, who was awesome and acerbic and who forced me way out of my comfort zone to meet people.

8. To fall in love more than a little bit. With Catherine’s infant son.

9. To be told by Ali how cute I am in person.

10. To hear variations on "Oh my god! Backpacking Dad!" enough times to feel like a huge, monster, Rock Star. I can only hope that I gushed similarly often enough to ease the karmic burden of all of that appreciation. My ego has been swollen to such an inappropriate size that I will be sentencing myself to the Python Abuse Room for a good week and a half to come back down to earth.

11. To discover how much I like mojitos. Even $11 mojitos.

Bah, there are a thousand of these I could write.

I was really touched, ladies. If every guy could go to BlogHer and have the same experience you’d be beating us away with great big sticks. It was an amazing experience that I’m never going to forget.